Skärgaards Porter - Nørrebro Bryghus

I can't say I've had many Danish craft beers before... In fact, I can't think of a Danish beer other than Carlsberg that I've had in recent memory. I don't have anything against Denmark, I quite like Vikings and Legos, I just haven't seen many Danish beers at the liquor store that caught my attention. This bottle of Skärgaards Porter, from Nørrebro Bryghus in Copenhagen, caught my eye while I was out of town and I decided to bring it home with me. I've found myself liking Porters more and more but what sealed the deal for me was the "brewed with honey" line at the bottom of the label. If there's one thing I like more than Vikings and Legos, it's honey.

Opening up this bomber of Skärgaards Porter was pretty uneventful. No choir of Viking angels descended from Valhalla, not that I was expecting them to, and there was no "wow" moment. The carbonation seemed a little on the low side and the aroma from the bottle was vaguely sweet and barely malty. Pouring this into my glass was equally mundane, the beer was a very dark brown, almost black, color with a light tan head. In short, it looked like a Porter. Perhaps these Danes deserve a bit more credit for brewing what appear to be the classic English porter. I found myself losing interest in this beer faster than the head was settling.

The aroma from my glass was still average for the most part. There was a bit more sweetness than expected but nothing blew me away. The prominent aromas were roasted malt, sweet chocolate and caramel cream. I was a little more intrigued by the promise of a sweet Porter, but was still unimpressed.

The flavor of this beer is where my patience was rewarded. The overall flavor profile was very well balanced, if a little too subtle at times. The roasted malt that hit my nose earlier was flavored much lighter than I expected. The malt tasted more like toasted bread than roasted coffee, this really went well with the chocolate, caramel and honey flavors. The chocolaty component was almost sweet enough to be milk chocolate and the caramel cream flavor I picked up on was probably a combination of the sweet chocolate and the Danish honey added during brewing.

By the end of the bottle I felt this was a modest Porter, brewed to English standards with a few Danish tweaks. It was good, but not great. I enjoyed the flavors but didn't find anything that made me feel like this beer was worth putting a premium on. I'd certainly drink it again but I wouldn't go out of my way to do so.